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Crisis looms in kids' telly
161/Patricia Holland
DATELINE: 24/1/08
Children's culture in the UK is being damaged. Children's programming has long been a justly celebrated feature of our television output. But children of all ages are already losing that diverse, home-produced mix of dramas, animation, factual material and the sheer scatty ebullience of the live studio.
"I can't emphasise too much that this is a crisis, and it's happening now" says Greg Childs of the Save Kids' TV campaign group. Companies like HIT entertainment who produce Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Art Attack and many other much loved programmes are in difficulties because of shrinking commissions.
The BBC, hit by the low licence fee settlement, are cutting staff in the children's department and commissioning fewer programmes. They also have to bear the cost of moving the department to Salford. The commercial broadcasters' investment has halved since 1998. Five has concentrated its output on Milkshake! for younger children, aired in the early morning when there is least competition. Channel 4 has no obligation to produce children's programming and by 2006 was no longer commissioning. But the most striking change has been on ITV.
The channel has steadily reduced its investment, and by 2005 had stopped commissioning new material altogether. The commercial companies argue they are facing the financial realities of the 2000s: less available advertising, increased competition from non-UK satellite channels, and the countdown to analogue switch off.
The danger is that, if nothing is done, only the BBC will be commissioning and broadcasting UK-originated children's programming, and this may well be confined to its dedicated channels, CBeebies and CBBC. Overall, only 17 per cent of the current output for children is UK produced (and only 1 per cent of that is first-run programmes). But Ofcom's research has shown that this 17 per cent provides 34 per cent of the programmes children choose to watch. Of their top 10 favourite programmes, nine were British.
There is a chorus of voices drawing attention to the situation. Producers, academics, columnists, campaigners and some MPs have been shouting that public service television is facing a serious crisis. Children's programming is like the candle in a mine, they warn. When it flickers and goes out, disaster is at hand. But we live in an age when market values dominate. And market values simply sweep aside any audience which is difficult to "monetise". The only body which could to influence the situation, the television regulator Ofcom, states it has no power to require broadcasters to commission programming for children.
At the same time, Ofcom are balancing several responsibilities. In October it published a Discussion Paper and an extensive Research Report on children's television, initiated in response to the accelerating changes.
The research includes a review of studies which demonstrate the benefits to children of a diversity of programming - ranging from citizenship to personal identity. But they remind us that the children who make up the appreciative audience are an important segment of society and have a right to information, educational material, and sheer fun on their own terms.
Recognising that a plurality of provision is an important factor in maintaining standards, the Discussion Paper, rather surprisingly, appears to have accepted that some sort of intervention is necessary after all. Various options are put forward to ensure that the BBC is not left as the sole provider. These include tax breaks for producers, extending the remit of Channel 4, and creating a new public institution, all of which give rise to difficult questions about funding. And Ofcom does not grasp the ITV nettle; seeking out ways to ensure that the channel continues its long and illustrious tradition of commissioning and broadcasting high quality children's programmes.
As with so many areas of broadcasting, "children's" should not be seen as a separate, closed off, "public service" category. It is intimately linked to the rest of the television output. Behind the screens many who have started in children's have gone on to run other parts of the schedules, while on the screen children's provision has run the gamut of the genres, from age-appropriate news, through drama and participation to the zaniest of games shows.
Children's television has long been highly interactive, and pioneered the light-hearted disrespectful style which now characterises so many "adult" shows. (Ant and Dec and Trinny and Susannah are just big kids). But most importantly, when children are treated with respect in their own shows, it will be easier for children's voices to be heard on their own terms. Children should be part of the mainstream too. The rights of children, which cannot be reduced to market values, show in its starkest form the limits of a commercialised media.
Last modified: Thursday, January 24, 2008
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Previous stories
Public Service Broadcasting
Scottish Broadcasting Commission wants to hear your views
Begin the fight back: How corporate strategists neutered the BBC
Joint statement from the BBC, BECTU, the NUJ and UNITE
BBC unions ballot for action
New Labour takes revenge on BBC
Future of ITV PSB at stake
Crunch time for TV
Digital switchover and the Whitehaven experience
BBC Trust agrees to cuts
CPBF responds to Ofcom's second PSB review
CPBF welcomes Scottish Commission
Save Storyville
Broadcasting Commission in Scotland
Saving Storyville
Stopping Murdoch Now 4
Stopping Murdoch Now 3
A new approach to public service content
PSB a dead theory
BBC - How it must change
Protecting public service broadcasting
Unions call off BBC strike
The media matters
CPBF submission on Public Service to the Culture Media and Sport Committee
Thompson and unions set date for licence fee showdown
BBC licence fee settlement - 'not good enough'
Unions and MPs in last bid to improve licence fee
Countdown to licence fee - but still time to act
BBC Licence fee - only days to act
BBC - How it must change
Murdoch moves in on ITV
